Rusting cars
Old vehicles among sand and cacti.
Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Domenico Convertini from Zurich, Schweiz — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Domenico Convertini from Zurich, Schweiz — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Domenico Convertini from Zurich, Schweiz — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Christoph Strässler — CC BY-SA 2.0
Solitaire is a tiny settlement in central Namibia, near Namib-Naukluft National Park. It has the only petrol station, bakery, cafe and general dealer between the dunes of Sossusvlei and the coast at Walvis Bay, so most people on this long road stop here. In 1948 Willem Christoffel van Coller bought 33,000 hectares for farming Karakul sheep, in an area then called Areb. His wife Elsie Sophia chose the name Solitaire because it can mean a single set diamond and also solitude. He first built a two-room cottage, then the farmhouse, a stone kraal and a dam wall, and later the current shop and the first petrol pump, with the shop acting as the regional post office. A small chapel built from 1948 to 1951 is still in use. The farm was sold in 1968 and has had numerous owners since, and a book by the Dutch author Ton van der Lee made it known in the Netherlands. The best-known sight is the rusting old cars scattered among sand and cacti, with abandoned trucks lined up near a welcome sign and old petrol pumps among succulents. Behind it all stretch open yellow land and distant mountains, a scene that suits the name. The place lies about 114.3 km from Sossusvlei and 183.6 km from Windhoek in a straight line, with gravel roads that are much longer. Fill your tank here, carry water and slow down on the gravel. The old cars are part of the place, so do not climb on them or take anything from them.
Old vehicles among sand and cacti.
An entrance guarded by abandoned trucks.
A stop on a long desert road.
Sossusvlei road, Khomas Region, Namibia
It has the only fuel, bakery and shop between Sossusvlei and the coast.
No, they are part of the place, so photograph them without climbing.